Lux Brumalis
by QuirkyChameleon
Summary: a Everlark Christmas one-shot. it's a bit angsty, but i wanted to write something in honor of the holidays. a very merry Christmas to all. blessings on the day of our savior's birth. i pray you and yours are well.


District Twelve had rarely seen a whiter December.

The normally rugged ground was masked completely by the thick snow, a white gleaming blanket over the earth. Night had fallen by now, and with it transcended a pristine tranquility that seemed to only exist around that time of year. The air felt still. Quiet. Peaceful.

To Katniss Everdeen, it was soothing. On any day she would try to pretend that the snow was nothing more than an impasse, an inconvenience in weather when she felt most cynical.

But behind herself, she felt a small sense of calm. The world was not blaring at her during the winter. Being a few months shy of the war, of course, the world seemed to blare at her every time else.

Katniss sat in her rocking chair, her quilt wrapped around herself as she stared out of the window, watching each flake fall to the ground softly. It was ironic to her that anything could fall softly, which was perhaps another reason why snow seemed to ease her so.

She pulled the quilt a little closer, shivering a little. There was nary a light in the house that was lit; even the fireplace was bare. Perhaps she should start a fire, she thought to herself, remembering the many winter nights where she and Prim had been huddled, shivering, under their thread-bare blankets together, praying that morning would come soon.

_Prim._ She closed her eyes at the sudden flow of memories. She would give anything to be back there right now, nestled next to her warm, breathing, _living_ sister. Two large tears squeezed from Katniss' gray eyes and fell onto her lap, leaving two dark spots on the quilt.

The door creaked and she almost jumped out of her skin.

"Katniss?" She repressed a sigh. Peeta. "Are you here? It's me."

She let him find her there, trembling under her quilt and staring into the empty fireplace, fixated on the ground ashes from any wood that might have once burned smoke out of the chimney. Peeta seemed to know it was a strange day, and she could hear the tail end of sorrow on its way out of his voice.

"It's freezing in here. May I start a fire?"

Katniss nodded. Peeta stood there for just a moment before he drew nearer to her. She sat stiffly in the chair, prepared to reject any kind of affection he tried to press on her right now, but he merely knelt in front of her and pulled her quilt more tightly around her thin shoulders.

He looked thinner, she observed, more gaunt. Not corpse-looking, but like he wasn't getting as much sleep as he should be. But then neither was she, Katniss mused bitterly.

Peeta had on a thick coat and gloves; his cheeks and nose still pink from the cold, his blonde hair hosting some remnants of snow. But it did nothing, Katniss saw, to take away from his blue eyes, which apart from the bags under them were just as gentle and kind as they ever were when they rested upon her.

She stared after him as he got up, exiting and re-entering again and again, each time bringing in more kindling and setting it down by the fireplace.

When Peeta had gotten a good-sized pile of wood, he set to work. Within an hour he had produced a flickering but steady fire. Much like himself, Katniss thought. Flickering but steady.

"May I sit down?"

Peeta did not want to intrude. _How dare he_, she thought. How dare he bring such warmth and goodness into her cold house and then leave it, to freely allow her the space that he thought she wanted?

"Yes," she said, her voice hoarse from its lack of use.

Peeta sat in front of the fire and warmed his hands, which reddened as they regained feeling.

There was silence for a long while, but not a very comfortable one for Katniss. It had felt more tranquil before. With Peeta here, her brain and heart had been switched back on. At least if she were alone she wouldn't have to think or feel. By default, Peeta prompted both.

After what felt like years, Peeta stood and walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Katniss jumped when she heard a clunk of a chair being knocked over, but she heard no body hit the floor. Katniss knew Peeta was fighting off a flashback. This tended to happen whenever he was around her for an extended period of time. She did not get up to help him. That would be dangerous, anyway.

Peeta came back in some time later, running a hand through his hair exhaustedly.

"Perhaps I should go."

"No." Katniss surprised herself with her answer. Suddenly she knew the room would be much colder without him there, regardless of whatever demons he'd just fought off. "Don't go."

Peeta looked troubled. "But I -"

"Don't go," she repeated a little more strongly.

It didn't have quite the same weight as "stay," but it didn't matter.

Peeta nodded. "Okay."

He stood still for only another moment, then he beckoned to her.

"Come here."

Katniss hesitated.

"Only for a minute or two."

She slowly stood up from her rocking chair and allowed Peeta to take a thick blanket from the closet and wrap it over her quilt. He dulled the fire down enough to where it was safe for them to leave it. Then he opened the door and went outside, Katniss following at a somewhat glacial pace.

The stillness returned, and Katniss began to feel peaceful once more. The blanket of snow over the ground seemed untouched and pure and unspeakably beautiful, tarnished by nothing. In the distance, from other houses, she could see lights from candles and colored lanterns. She could hear music playing softly from one or two of the houses. The snow continued to fall dreamily and silently.

Peeta sat down on the porch, and she sat next to him.

There was another long pause between them before Peeta said, "It's Christmas, I think."

She turned to look at him. "It's what?"

"I learned about it in the Capitol," he said, not bothering to avoid any possible trigger words. "It's something they used to celebrate – the general society, I mean, not the Capitol – before the Dark Days. Long before the Dark Days. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago. It was in some book Dr. Aurelius gave me. It said that long ago, even before anyone recorded the story in that book, there was this sacred day called Christmas. It was supposed to celebrate the birth of a king. A savior, of sorts. One who was supposed to save the world from evil."

Katniss could not suppress a snort. "Well, he's sure done a bang-up job of that."

"I know it sounds strange," said Peeta. "It did to me too at first. But I guess that king did save the world somehow."

"And how do you figure that?"

"There is still good in the world," Peeta said simply. "So he sort of did save it, I suppose. I don't fully understand the story. And Dr. Aurelius said the one recorded in the book wasn't the entire thing. But I believe it. Something about it felt right."

Katniss pondered. Even though the idea was still a little ludicrous to her, it did feel right somehow.

"What was this day called?"

"Christmas," said Peeta. "It sounds joyful. Peaceful, in a way. Dr. Aurelius said it was often a time where people gathered with their families and celebrated together. They said 'Merry Christmas.' Again, I don't know everything about it, but it sounds like something worth celebrating."

Katniss nodded, her mood now pensive.

They both turned their gaze back on the snow, which still fell as quietly as it ever did. Any of Katniss' inner turmoil seemed to be temporarily quelled now, even with Peeta sitting there beside her, a living and breathing stressor. But even Peeta seemed more at peace; his calm blue gaze on the snow before them. The candles and lanterns gleamed evermore brightly among the residences of District Twelve. Katniss supposed it wasn't an ideal way to spend this Christmas or whatever he called it, if it was indeed supposed to be a celebratory occasion, but she didn't think she would rather be anywhere else.

"Merry Christmas, Katniss," Peeta said softly from next to her.

After a moment, Katniss answered him. "Merry Christmas, Peeta."

Their hands found each other and they sat, fingers entwined, watching the falling snow.


End file.
